Weight Loss/Binge Eating Step One

Step One (for the next two or so weeks)

Do nothing. Change nothing. 

Since I haven't started working or really dieting, I'm not going to start now during this period. There are some things that I have to do.

Get Some Sleep

Studies have shown that people with bad sleeping habits, i.e. they stay up late at night, gain weight. For me, 6-8 hours of sleep is what I need. It's not what I get. I am a night owl. I often stay up until 2 or 3 am and then get up for work at 7 or 7:30 am. Apparently, this is very bad.

So I'm going to try to make sure that I get some sleep.

Write Everything Down

I want to get into a habit of noticing when I eat, when I binge, how much I eat, what I felt. Research shows that by keeping a food helps people lose weight. However that is not the only reason for me to keep track of what eat. I need to keep track of whether or not this was a binge. The only way I can count and keep track is via a diary.

Here's what I want to keep track of and you should too...

• Date
• Time
• What I ate and how much (example: 8 oz protein shake, 2 servings of spaghetti, etc)
• Where I ate
• Was this a binge?
• Did I purge after this?
• Did I use laxative or diuretics?
• How did I feel when I ate what I ate?
• Did I exercise? What type of exercise and how long did I do it?
• When did I go to bed? When did I wake up? How long did I sleep?

End of the Week

For me the end of the week is Sunday and the start of the week is Monday. Whatever your schedule, it should work fine. The end of the week is day we do a couple of things. We weight ourselves, we go over our food journals and we decide if we're ready to move onto Step Two.

Here I will use a weekly journal that will keep track of my weight, the number of binges and purges, and the number of good days that I had during the week. A good day is a day that I met all of my objectives for a particular step. In this case, did I sleep for 6-8 hours last night? Did I write down everything I ate today? If yes, then you had a good day.

Here's what you should keep track of in your weekly diary:

• Week number
• Number of Binges
• Number of Purges
• How many times did I use laxatives
• Number of good days
• Weight
• What step are you on?

What You will Need to Successfully Complete Step One

You will need a scale
You will need a notebook, journal, or whatever you have on hand to write down all of this. I love the myfitnesspal app for the Blackberry. You can record everything you eat and how you feel and even exercise. It also records the calories and nutrition of your food. I created an excel spreadsheet to keep track of everything.

Moving onto to Step Two

I can only move on to Step Two is if I have done a good of meeting all of the Step One Objectives. I can only move on if for the past two weeks, I missed four or less days of writing in my journal or if for two or less days I didn't get enough sleep.

If I didn't accomplish any of the objectives, then I have to repeat Step One for another two weeks.

Special Note

Writing down what I eat is really hard. Normally binge eating is something that done in secret. There's a lot of private shame attached to it. So when I see what I ate during a binge, it makes me feel really, really, really bad and I don't want to face it. I know that there are other women and men out there that feel the same. But we have to do it. We have to face it or we'll just end up back where we were, in an endless cycle of binging and depression. I'm so sick of feeling like that. I want to be the person I know that I can be. The person who like going out and meeting new people, not the person who feels like she's a prisoner in her own body!!!!

Please contact your doctor before starting any weight loss plan. Get the okay. I'm sure you're doctor will be very happy that you've decided to do this.

This is going to take a lot of time. Successful weight loss shouldn't be rushed. There is no overnight miracle. This is going to be painful and slow. In other words, it's going to be torture!!!